Michelle+Thames


 * SUMMARY: Michelle Thames, age 18, died November 17, 1987 after an abortion performed at Her Medical Clinic in Los Angeles, CA.**

Eighteen-year-old Michelle Thames of Lynwood, California suffered a seizure during her abortion at Her Medical Clinic on November 17, 1987. She died later that day. Her family filed suit, claiming that Her Medical Clinic staff had made inadequate attempts to resuscitate Michelle.

Michelle wasn't the only young woman to die at the notorious Her Medical Clinic, run by abortionist Leo Kenneally. [|Liliana Cortez] had died there in September of 1986. [|Donna Heim] had died there in August of 1986. And [|Maria Soto] had died there after being injected with drugs and left unattended in September of 1985.

The battle over Kenneally's medical license turned political after it was suspended by the medical board over the appalling conditions at Her Medical Clinic. Former state medical board executive director Dixon Arnett's said that Leo F. Kenneally's case was "the most egregious I have seen, bar none." But a judge restored Kenneally's license on the grounds that he was doing a public service "providing abortions" in an "underserved area."

The investigation of patient deaths wasn't the first time Kenneally got in trouble. His license had been suspended in 1979 for Medi-Cal theft, and previously in 1975 for records-keeping violations.

Sources:
 * Los Angeles Herald Examiner 2/22/88,
 * LA Times 6-17-91
 * " Deaths of 3 Women Following Abortions Spur Clinic Probes," //Los Angeles Times//, Feb. 29, 1988
 * "State Panel Accuses MD of Negligence in 3 Deaths," //Los Angeles Times//, May 5, 1990